[img]1|left|||no_popup[/img]Second of two parts.
Previously, “Which Councilman Reminds You of George Washington? Denzel Washington?”
The subject was the supposedly deplorable state of public notification at City Hall.
It has troubled, nay obsessed, Vice Mayor Gary Silbiger throughout his two terms that not enough darned people attend City Council meetings.
That is an appropriate obsession. His problem is his cockeyed notion of a remedy.
He has hinted, darkly, several dozen times, that City Hall and its crack promotional staff must be disguising the facts about how much pure fun 5 or 6 hours of repetitive, debatably articulate, haranguing at each other by certain gasbags can be.
If residents of average intelligence were told the truth by City Hall as to what fabulous entertainment that he and his colleagues provide, free, at the weekly meetings, Mr. Silbiger contends, the darned room would be filled to overflow. The entire city would stampede to a halt.
A Little Mood Music, Sam
A reverent hush would fall across the city, and in Council Chambers a choir of angels would break into heavenly rhythms.
Which brings us to last Monday night’s meeting. For a change, that everlovin’ dead horse known as “Public Notification,” was in the center ring of the agenda.
How to bring in the people?
Should City Hall’s bearded and burly Agenda Police get mad and start knocking on doors, they may have to handcuff frightened persons who will be screaming and kicking their feet in the air.
Why? Because they know what goes on at Council meetings. That is why at 7 every Monday they drink, they carouse, they beat their wives, they shinny up really tall telephone poles, anything to avoid joining an Amen Corner for the loquacious City Council.
It is no accident that we could shlep the dozen or so regulars to Council Chambers in a couple of cars — or 12 bicycle trips, as we suggested yesterday..
Chris Armenta, who is a very sincere, very well-meaning member of the City Council, said it was “a no-brainer” to install a computer at the rear of Council Chambers for a single reason — to jack up attendance.
Every person who attends Monday night Council meetings would have an opportunity to sign up for the vaunted 900-person email list whose members regularly are notified of the agendas at coming meetings.
Was This Overlooked?
The rather obvious flaw in this theory is that people have to come to Council Chambers to sign up. If the core problem is that they are not coming to Chambers, how will a lonely computer make a difference?
Has it ever occurred to the worthy Council members that most of the community avoids Council Chambers because most are busy and not motivated.
Lest the Council lose perspective and fail to realize that all 40,000 residents are not clinging desperately to their prosaic pronouncements, it is time for sagacious advice.
Sage from South Central Culver City
Six years after leaving office, former Mayor Ed Wolkowitz may be cast in the role of elder statesman, even though he still is a fairly young man.
He follows the Council closely.
The other day, he talked about the importance of perspective, of not getting carried away because 2 people stamp their feet, demand a law be changed and you say, “Yes, sirree.”
“The reality is,” said Mr. Wolkowitz, “and I told this to Gary Silbiger, only 1 in 5 ofg the voters in Culver City voted for you.
“”Eighty percent of them chose not to vote at all. But the 1 in 5 voted for you to exercise your discretion in making decisions for the benefit of the entire city.
“When a neighbor comes before the City Council and talks about how terrible a (construction) project is, what you should be focusing on is what the other 4 (citizens) who didn’t show up at the Council meeting might be saying.
“One has to make a decision based on its overall benefit, a balancing of the negatives and the positives.”
Then, Mr. Wolkowitz came to his red-light punch line:
“You have to understand that most of the people who come to the Council are talking about the negatives. That is what drives most activists.”
“If you really want to get people involved in something, the way to do that is to tee them off. (Negative) involvement is extremely fleeting.”
Mr. Wolkowitz was critical of the Council for eagerly pouncing on the RV parking ban at last week’s meeting, vowing to at least consider reversing it — based on a petition from 3 people.
“The RV issue has been bouncing back and forth in front of the Council for the last 20 years,” he said. “The real issue, the one they never bring up is the cost of enforcement.”
The Council agreed that if an exception were made for Culver City RV owners, all problems would evaporate.
“Except that,” said Mr. Wolkowitz, “every police officer on every patrol has to stop at every RV to verify that this is owned by a Culver City resident.
“We would rather the Police Dept. do more important things, it seems to me.”
